BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NASDAQ:BCRX)

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:BCRX) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock investors purchased 22,921 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 499% compared to the typical daily volume of 3,829 call options.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BioCryst Pharmaceuticals

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Phocas Financial Corp. bought a new position in shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals in the fourth quarter worth about $1,956,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 6.1% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 21,790,881 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $165,393,000 after acquiring an additional 1,246,633 shares during the period. Aberdeen Group plc bought a new position in shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $7,126,000. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al increased its holdings in BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 106.5% in the 4th quarter. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al now owns 233,354 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $1,820,000 after acquiring an additional 120,350 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its holdings in BioCryst Pharmaceuticals by 21.4% in the 4th quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 2,542,714 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $19,833,000 after acquiring an additional 448,436 shares in the last quarter. 85.88% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BCRX has been the subject of several analyst reports. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 9th. Citizens Jmp upped their price objective on BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Needham & Company LLC cut their target price on BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from $18.00 to $16.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Wedbush reduced their target price on BioCryst Pharmaceuticals from $22.00 to $21.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Monday, June 1st. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $20.70.

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Stock Up 3.8%

Shares of NASDAQ BCRX traded up $0.35 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $9.66. 2,323,456 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,984,560. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $8.87 and a 200-day simple moving average of $8.21. BioCryst Pharmaceuticals has a 52-week low of $6.00 and a 52-week high of $10.32. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.46 billion, a PE ratio of -5.40 and a beta of 0.57.

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:BCRX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 6th. The biotechnology company reported ($2.98) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.06 by ($3.04). The company had revenue of $156.41 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $151.12 million. BioCryst Pharmaceuticals had a negative net margin of 51.71% and a negative return on equity of 76.36%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.20 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that BioCryst Pharmaceuticals will post -2.66 EPS for the current year.

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc is a clinical‐stage biotechnology company headquartered in Durham, North Carolina, that focuses on the discovery and development of novel, oral small‐molecule medicines for rare and serious diseases. Since its founding in 1986, the company has leveraged structure‐based drug design to advance a pipeline of targeted therapeutics designed to address underlying disease mechanisms rather than just treat symptoms.

The company’s first commercial product, Orladeyo (berotralstat), is an oral kallikrein inhibitor approved for the prophylactic treatment of hereditary angioedema (HAE) in both the United States and Europe.